Tag Archives: Theater Department alumni

OUT AND ABOUT: Murmuration presents Jessie Bear ’09’s MAKESHIFT

If you are out and about in Philly….
Murmuration Theater Company presents MAKESHIFT By Jessie Bear ’09

Murmuration Theater was founded in June of 2013 by a collection of people who identity as actors, playwrights, dramaturgs, designers, and artists. The members of Murmuration Theater began working together in 2010 at Swarthmore College and collaborated on four shows prior to coming together to form Murmuration Theater.

Murmuration Theater Company will premiere their first ever work, Makeshift, upstairs in Plays and Players. A thoughtful and heartfelt new play exploring loss, imagination, and the enduring detritus of our lives, Makeshift is the product of three years of workshops, revisions, and conversation. As directed by M. Craig Getting, Makeshift explores themes of love, loss, connection, and disconnection through both naturalism and magical realism. Makeshift will run for a limited engagement from November 6 – 10.

Featuring Swarthmore College alumni (Nell Bang-Jensen ’11 & Isa St. Clair ’11) and faculty designer, Laila Swanson, this promises to be a great show!

Tickets are available now at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/449687
Preview Tickets are $10
All other performances: $15 general admission, $10 Industry/Student/Under 25

More news from Joseph Altuzarra ’05…

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-and-events/award-winning-fashion-designer-joseph-altuzarra-05-discusses-building-his-brand.xml

CHIMERA in the Frear for Arts Weekend!

A couple of years ago, Suli Holum ’97 called Deborah Stein ’99 and pitched an idea for a solo show: a play about chimerism, a medical phenomenon whereby two sets of DNA exist in one body. They created Chimera, a performance event about a woman who is her own twin, and enlisted Tara Webb ’94, who works with the intersection of costume design and technology. The result is a dynamic interchange between a live performer and her audience against a backdrop of inventive staging and creative digital technology.

Chimera made its debut to critical acclaim at the art space HERE in New York City. Developed with support from the Swarthmore Project in Theater, Chimera launches its road tour during Arts Weekend.

What critics say:

“Delivers on its ambitious promise…. Chimera has many different stories nestled in its austere, deceptively chilly-seeming frame. And they’re all good.” —The New York Times

“Chimera only needs a minute to make you question your grasp on reality…. By refusing to stay literal, Holum and Stein invite us to consider large questions.” —TDF Stages: A Theater Magazine

“Outrageously good … Chimera simultaneously revels in and knowingly dissects the nature of theater without forgetting its primary mission: to entertain.” —Backstage

Swarthmore College performances

Chimera will be performed twice on Saturday, April 14, in the Lang Performing Arts Center Frear Ensemble Theatre. The matinee performance will run from 3-4:15 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with the artists, and an evening performance from 7-8:15 p.m. Alumni, parents, and friends must reserve tickets in advance when registering for Arts Weekend.

AW_Chimera_12.3b

4/3/12 Dr. Emine Fisek ’03 lectures on “Theater Without Borders?”

Theater without Borders? Humanitarianism and Representation from Aid Networks to the Théâtre du Soleil

A lecture by Dr. Emine Fisek ‘03

Tuesday, April 3rd, 4:30 pm

301 LPAC

Over the course of the last decade, French theater has witnessed a wide variety of commercial and non-commercial works that portray narratives of exile, displacement, and suffering from undocumented immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. In this talk my goal will be to place this emergence within the larger context of changing immigration laws, medical humanitarianisms and immigrant social movements. The representative practices of these domains increasingly influence both how artists think about the capacities they attribute to “humanitarian” art, and the explanatory principles they use to position themselves in relation to the suffering they wish to portray. What then does a humanitarian theater, “without borders”, look like?

Emine Fisek ’03 is currently a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in French Literature/Francophone Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She has completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in the Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies at UC-Berkeley. She will join the faculty of Western Languages and Literatures at Bogazici University in Istanbul in Fall 2012. At Swarthmore, Dr. Fisek was a double major in Theater and English Literature.

Emine Fisek’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility, the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures (Arabic and French Sections), English Literature, and Film & Media Studies.

Lars Jan ’00 on ABACUS in Interview Magazine…

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/paul-abacus-lars-jan-sundance#_

Lars Jan ’00 at Sundance 2012

Theater alum Lars Jan ’00 presented his multimedia piece ABACUS, an official selection of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah in February. Jan has worked for three years on ABACUS, which he describes as “a visually immersive, genre-bending presentation exploring the future of national borders and how contemporary persuasion works.” In style, the presentation assumes a TED-talk fused with the grand gestures of megachurch media design, all while utilizing emerging technologies and stunning visual effects. http://www.swarthmore.edu/x34751.xml